There’s been a lot of interest in BPM’s Geoff Lealand Student Challenge and we’ve had several requests to extend the deadline to allow students to think about and research this year’s question – Social media. Love it or leave it?
It’s good timing. Concerns about social media hit the news earlier this month when the government announced it was considering banning social media for young people under 16, along similar lines to the Australian ban that comes into force in December 2025.
Banning social media is the sort of subject that everyone has an opinion on – parents, educators, grandparents, ‘influencers’, marketeers and adults in general – but what about the young people affected by the ban?
The student challenge is a great opportunity for young people to have their say on the issue of social media and whether they would love it or leave it.
About the challenge
When BPM first began planning for this year’s student challenge we chose the subject because we’d heard whispers about teenagers quitting social media altogether. That’s quite different tofrom the cliché of young people sitting around looking at their phones and not interacting with people around them.
It seems more and more of us now asking whether social media serves us – or do we serve it?
We want to find out why young people might want to leave social media, and whether there are ways they would change social media platforms to make them better for young people.
There’s a first prize of $1,000 to the winning student and $500 for second prize, plus the winner’s school gets $500 for their media studies department.
The student challenge is only open to current high school students in Aotearoa. To enter students must submit a piece of content (essay, poem, video, podcast, TikTok series or anything) that answers the question:
“Social media. Love it or leave it?”
Deadline extended
The deadline for entries has been extended to Sunday midnight on 15 June 2025. There’s still lots of time for students to get their thinking caps on and come up with a winning entry.
See the BPM website for lots of ideas and inspiration.
Have your say
We’ll be publishing all the entries on our website and promoting them to newsmedia and politicians.
Maybe your entry will be seen by MPs and influence their decision in Parliament.
BPM’s Geoff Lealand Student Challenge is a great way for young people to be heard on this important issue. After all, it’s young people who are actually affected by the ban.
